Ventura Sailing Club
What You Missed at Our Last Meeting(s)
VSC April 2026 Monthly MeetingApril meeting recap
Hello Ventura Sailing Club,
Thank you, Bob Shirley, for standing in as acting commodore and Lynda Blue filling in as
secretary. The show must go on, even if Chris, Alicia and I are out of town.
Welcome to our 2 newest members, Jon Rodriguez who is former owner of Green Flash and
Don Litton who has a Columbia 29, built in 1962. I’ll have more info. about them when their
membership forms arrive. With our expansion of boats built in the 60s, we might have to
institute a “super vintage” class for the Wild Turkey Classic Plastic race.
Bob reported on our first Anacapa Arch Race. We had 12 entries that were whittled down to
8 actual starters and 5 finishers. He reminded everyone of how a simple reach out and
back to the arch turned into a beat with everyone trying out diWerent strategies to get to the
arch and then a downwind sail back. In short, our simple race became a bit of a chess
match. And Anacapa Yacht Club was generous (once again) and Chuck Manley was
generous (once again) in hosting everyone after the race with food and drink.
Thank you AYC!
Bob announced the Beachcat Race coming up on April 19th. As of this writing that one’s in
the books. More on that later.
Frenchy’s Rum Run is up on Regatta Network. Please register if you’re planning to sail.
Most of the participants look at the “view registrants” link to see if there’s enough interest in
the race to commit. And speaking of commitment, when you register with Regatta
Network, it is possible to register without paying, and pay later. You just need to remember
to pay later. I’m not sure if they send you reminders or not.
Also, for the beachcats, now more than ever, you must register early. It will take a minimum
of 6 boats to pay for the fuel on the chase boat. And we need to make arrangements with
the chase boat early or we may not find one.
We’ve received 12 membership renewals to date for 2026.
Please remit via snail mail to:
VSC care of Hall Stratton
1186 Spring St. Oak View, CA 93022
or you can pay directly with
our QR code for our Venmo @VSCVenturaSailingClub (below).
Island Report: the Anacapa passage buoy was removed, it provided swell size and water
temp, not wind speed, and the east channel buoy will remain where it is, no funding to
relocate it.
Fishing boats have been catching bluefin tuna off Santa Rosa Island around Skunk Point,
where the water temp is been in low 70s last couple weeks
.
20 gray whales have been living/feeding off sand crabs at Bechers bay Santa Rosa Island,
blue whales are in west Channel, fin whales and Orca off Anacapa.
Eric proposed a new race for an empty calendar day on the race schedule. Start at
Mandalay, go to your home port, First boat to get it's entire crew to the AYC bar
wins.
The race calendar is on our website Venturasailingclub.org under racing news. Thank you
Eric!
Don North has been working with Alicia to keep our social media presence current. Thank
you both. He’s happy to accept any info., videos or pictures that promote the club’s
mission to “just go sailing.” Pics can be current or not.
And lastly, from the Commodore, leading the club this last couple of months has been a
dream come true. Why? Because members are making stuW happen! We no longer rely on
one person to get things done (Thank you Will because you were willing to shoulder that).
There’s lots of help coming from different folks and with that comes a better club.
VSC March 2026 Monthly Meeting
Our monthly meeting was well attended by about 20 sailing enthusiasts that included a couple of new guests, Steve and Cheryl Kornberg who live aboard their 50 foot sailboat in Ventura and have completed a circumnavigation. Our meetings keep getting more interesting as our presence in social media expands!
Tomorrow, Sunday the 15th of March, will be the Sail-Out for Captain Jane Thomas. Boats will be leaving Channel Islands Harbor at 10:00 am and headed for Platform Gina where a burial at sea will commence at approximately 10:50. Akua Kai will be leaving Ventura Harbor by 09:30. There will be a memorial at Channel Islands Yacht Club afterwards. See attachments for more information. I have 2 Wai'Lani purple pennants left if anyone is without one.
Discussion was held on the Anacapa Arch Race, April 11th. The plan is to start at Mandalay, go to Anacapa Arch Rock, round a mark that will be placed on the back-side of the Arch (no sailing through the arch), and return to Channel Islands Harbor entrance to finish. AYC has offered a post race gathering with food and bar open. Prizes will be pictures (that participants take) mounted on a plaque based on the number of participants in each class. There will be PHRF spin and non-spin class and an ORCA fleet. No beachcats for this one, as we haven't been able to muster enough interest to justify the expense of a chase boat. Hopefully next year.
NOR attached below and will be up on the website soon. SIs and entry form to follow.
On April 18th, we'll host a beachcat race off of Ventura Harbor. Alicia and crew aboard Akua Kai will provide 2 or 3 starts for beachcats to do a little short course racing to start the season off for the beachcats. Bob Shirley is helping to get this project off the ground. More info coming. Any non beachcatters are welcome to join Alicia to assist with race committee or to just be spectators as the beachcats go out and play.
VYC is hosting some dinghy one design racing on May 8, 22 and June 5 at 6 pm. We'll be contacting them about the possibility of a beachcat fleet if there is interest in this. Layne and I are definitely interested if we can get a couple of more boats.
We've started discussion about this year's Frenchy's race. Course will remain the same as past years but we talked about delaying the start until noon to take advantage of more wind for the race, however the boats that like the light air start would like to continue with the 11:00 start as in past races. So maybe we can try a 11:30 start? With a beachcat fleet we always want to make sure they are off the water before dark, but historically they manage to finish in somewhere between 3 hours and 5 hours and the middle of June gives us light until after 8 pm. More on that later.
The 2026 racing season has begun with the midwinters race at CIYC that hosted a one design J 24 fleet. PBYC's spring series started with VSC members aboard She-Said-No, Akua Kai, and Velero. And PCYC's winter series had VSC's She-Said-No and So Long racing.
Treasurer's Report - we have $4K in our account. We plan to purchase a new race mark. Our old one is practically invisible at a distance, so we'll pick up an Orange inflatable that is easily handled by our volunteer race committees. If we can't get one sponsored it will be about $300. I'm working with West Marine and Nautos on that.
Social Media - Facebook and Instagrams are being kept current by Alicia and Don North. We've had THOUSANDS of views! Please send your pictures and videos to Dropbox Ventura Sailing Club Photos.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/p3ahpp0wcetlg3yhcfsvi/AALeKTwmDKcEbFgqvbYMaO0?rlkey=srytfz6zlib1526maq3yhi1nn&e=1&st=2e1ilzmo&dl=0
Eric has updated our website and needs time sensitive info at least a couple of weeks before an event.
Chris and Marisela administered our monthly pub quiz. Thank you. Also, retired Harbor Patrolman, ex lifeguard, and surfski builder Merv Larson has donated his entire library of nautical books to the club. It's extensive and we'll have one box available each month for members to peruse and to add to their personal libraries. Oh, did I mention Merv was an Olympian too! He's truly as much of a "waterman" as you can get. I'll never forget watching him surfski C street in 1969 on a 15'+ swell with no one else out.
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